veggie tales

After much tilling and weeding and raking - oh my aching back! the garden is finally planted and is beginning to reveal itself.

We have our first tomatoes!

and yesterday we had a lovely dinner salad with an assortment of lettuces from the garden - accented by our first radish!  Have you ever tried to split a single radish amongst 4 people?  We were all so proud of our efforts, we each wanted a taste :)

and so it begins...

And so begins our first year in this new home. Of course "new" is a relative term, since it was built over 40 years ago now. One of the local physicians, newly graduated with his MD in hand, arrived in town, family in tow, to begin his new practice. It was 1978 and he dreamed of a place in the country, where his children could run and play, his wife could garden and he could escape from the busy work day to relax. As time went by, his practice became more successful. His children began to flourish and his wife dreamed of more land where the horses could have a larger pasture. And so they moved away and built a new home on a much larger piece of property on the other side of town.

Prominently perched on the top of the hill, with just over 4 acres, it's an odd sort of house for the area, and it certainly wasn't what i went looking for... but it called my name from the moment we passed through the front gate. Up the hill and along the worn and aging driveway, we slowly approached the house. All along, I knew this would be our next home, and I hadn't even been inside yet. Past the fallen trees, remnants of a fierce and rare tornado years ago, past the old and ragged rose bushes and homestead irises, and past the crepe myrtle trees, they were all calling out to me. They sorely needed attention and I was just what the doctor ordered.

We toured the home and the property and agreed that while the floor plan was a bit odd and wouldn't work for most families, it was just perfect for us! A workshop for him, a greenhouse for me and a charming little vegetable garden with a white picket fence for both of us. Plus those beautiful views of the surrounding pastures filled with tall pines and old spreading oaks ... yes, it was going to be just perfect!

And so, we purchased the home in January of 2010 to start our New Year and another new chapter in our life. We began to make the "necessary" improvements to the inside and then began to work on the outside - my real passion.

It's Spring now, and as we have been working the soil, planting the garden and tending to the long overgrown roses, we are beginning to see new and amazing beauty every day.

I've always had a little bit of a flower garden at one home or another, and once when we were young and newly married, we planted a small raised vegetable garden together - but this is a much bigger assignment - and maybe one that someday we will regret?

But for now, I'm in love with my garden and this new place we call home. I look forward to each day as I walk the property in my two red shoes and cherish each beautiful new discovery beyond my garden gate.